Sole Survivor
by Luke4444
Summary: When the Aurora unexpectedly goes down on an uncharted world, a young officer has to to do all she can to survive.
1. VITA

**Virtual Intelligence for Terran Assistance, model C45FD78, log:**

 **Platform** : Terran Commonwealth Spacecraft Aurora.

 **Date** : 1:56pm, 6.22.2177, Sol-Coordinated Calendar.

 **Location** : Terminus Systems, Ariadne Nebula, Phaedra system, enroute to 4546 Phaedra b.

"Commencing analysis of Phaedra system."

"4546 Phaedra;

Diameter: 0.847 solar diameters;Surface temperature: 5159 Kelvin;Luminosity: 0.512;Solar mass: 0.8;Habitable Region: 0.679 to 0.965AU.

"Phaedra b;

Orbit: 0.72AU; Diameter: 1.2 earth radii; Major rocky moon detected; Nitrogen-Oxygen atmosphere detected; Water vapor detected; Major ocean bodies detected; Minor land masses detected. Initial planetary classification: Bathypelagic type planet, Archipelagic subtype. Initial colonization assessment: Favorable.

"Commencing orbital insertion of Phaedra b, initiating surface scan procedures. Warning! Massive power surge detected from anomalous contact. Warning! Energy discharge detected. Warning! Hull breach detected, drive core is offline. Emergency parameters engaged. All personnel, abandon ship! Catastrophic hull breach imminent! All personnel, abandon ship! Catastrophic hull breach imminent! All personnel, abandon ship! Catastrophic hull breach imminent!

"Confirming launch of multiple lifepods. Warning! Massive power surge detected from anomalous contact. Warning! Energy discharge detected.Warn-!"


	2. Ensign Shepard

**Post-crash log 1, Day 1:** _"This is Ensign Kenna Shepard of the TCS Aurora, Ariadne Taskforce of the Terran Commonwealth's 3rd fleet. And it's...uh...Oh-900 Sol time, according to my omni-tool._ _Sometime earlier this morning the Aurora went down in orbit of this planet, I have no clue why, and my pod's circuitry was damaged during our decent, meaning i can't activate the damn radio beacon!"_ she yelled in frustration, panting heavily as she tried to reign herself back in.

 _"Its okay, you're gonna be okay. You can do this."_ she whispers, more to herself than anything, but the mic picks it up. With a calming breath, she begins again. _"Okay. So, for the duration of this little...detour, I'll be recording and transmitting on the short-wave of this tool. Hopefully the other survivors will pick up the signals and lend a hand. I'm going to take stock of what i've got on hand aboard, see where to go from there. Ensign Shepard out."_

 **Post-crash log 2, Day 1:**

 _"This is Ensign Shepard again. Well, i'm not really sure what I expected from a group like Alterra, but it was certainly a bit more than this."_

She sighs, _"Let's start with the bad, shall we? Two high calorie nutrient blocks, 2500 calories apiece. Usually that's two days worth of food, but not if you're biotic like me. That's at best a day if i don't push my biotics too hard._ _Six liters of water. Likewise sufficient for a few days for non-biotics, but not so when you have to digest near twice as much._ _Two flares and a flare gun. I suppose they could be useful for firestarting, but given I'd rather avoid having another fire in my pod, I'll put that thought aside. I can use it to signal the other survivors, and I'll do so once just after sunset here, but it seems otherwise pointless. I certainly couldn't use them if the pod were in space, and I won't be signalling a passing spacecraft with it anytime soon._

 _"Okay, now the good news. There's a built in medi-gel dispenser with enough shots to last a month if i'm not reckless out there._ _And there's an Aketon enviro-suit! I have to admit, I wasn't sure I'd see one unless I hooked up with some Troopers again, but its welcome surprise._

 _"With that suit, I think I'll be more comfortable exploring around my pod tomorrow. I know that, per the last update my 'tool got from the Aurora's network, the planet ought to be Terran friendly, but you never really know until someone has tried it themselves, do you?"_


	3. Safe Shallows

**Post-crash log 3, Day 2:** _"This is Ensign Shepard from lifepod five of the Aurora, the time is..." yawn, "…eighteen hundred hours, June twenty-third, Sol-time. The planet apparently has about twelve hour days, meaning I'll have to adjust to a six hour day. Could be worse I suppose._

 _"I took a look around yesterday at sunset, and I think I saw the Aurora...well what's left of her anyway. If I had to guess, she's about 8 clicks out. Assuming I can get there, I should be able to meet up with more survivors, if I'm not...not…"_ she takes a deep breath, _"Well, at the very least I should be able to scavenge the supplies I'm ridiculously short on. That'll be a mid-term goal. Short-term, inspect my landing zone, assess for any immediate threats to me and the pod. Long term goal...get off this rock. Ensign Shepard out."_

The waters around the pod are surreal. It is so earth-like, and yet simultaneously alien, that were it not so important while swimming, it would take Shepard's breath away. Vibrant plant life and corals grow out of the sandy bottom, and schools of fish make their way around the oceanic equivalent of an oasis. But she has a job to do, so she focuses back on the tasks she set for herself.

She inspects the flotation collar, a keen eye looking for potential leaks that would make the only shelter she has sink like the one tonne tin can she knows it to be. Alterra had already cut dangerous corners with the emerge rations, so in her mind its not a big leap to cutting corners in construction. And for all she knew, the ship went down because their penny pinching ways meant the Aurora would fall apart in atmo. She's relieved to find them all intact, though she notices that every now and then a curious creature comes up to investigate the mysterious interlopers in their homes. She watches them warily, but they're harmless herbivores, or hunt much smaller creatures than she.

Satisfied that the pod isn't going to become a permanent feature of the alien reef, she climbs out of the water to get a proper daytime view from atop lifepod five.

The view from above isn't nearly as breathtakingly beautiful, but it's captivating in a different way. Horizon to horizon of blue seascape, the only deviation being the fingernail sized bump that may or may not be the wreckage of a spaceship.

 **Post-crash log 4, Day 2:**

 _"This is Ensign Shepard from lifepod five of the Aurora, the time is twenty-hundred, Sol-coordinated._ _"Well, at least Alterra built this pod right; the gravity anchor appears to be working and the flotation collar doesn't appear to be leaking. I'm not going to the bottom unless I do something stupid._

 _"Speaking of, I've thought of a way to get to the Aurora..."_


	4. Hobbes

The tricky part of Kenna's plan was turning off the gravity anchor. This was a considerable challenge because the control panel was put out of commission by her rough orbital descent, thus rendering most of the pod's electronics inoperable. It was only because the anchor had an emergency activation system that it had worked at all. Had being the operative word, because she was forced to fry that system too.

Typical survival training tended to impress the notion of staying put so you could be found easier. That was out the question here. Besides the fact that she didn't have the supplies to pull it off, sitting around just waiting to be rescued felt too much like giving up. And as her father had always said, Shepards don't quit.

The anchor now "weighed", she climbed up the ladder, her top half poking out the hatch. It was early morning yet, and the sun was only just over the horizon while the planet's red moon was still high in the sky. She braced herself between the hatch opening and the rungs of the ladder, and took a deep breath as she began part two of her plan.

She focuses on a spot just in front of her pod, shivers a little as she feels the tingle of her biotics across her skin, then with a gesture she sends out her power. It sets a patch of ocean aglow in periwinkle hues before it starts pushing the water way, making a trench that her pod starts to slip into. With a bit more concentration she keeps the mass effect field at a distance as the pod rides the artificial wave, and before long she's moving at a few meters per second towards the distant spaceship.

In spite of the mental strain, she cracks a smile at finally making progress towards leaving this planet.

 **Post-crash log 5, Day 3:**

 _"This is Ensign Shepard from lifepod five...and my head is killing me like a bad hangover."_ she groans. _"Other than that, the plan has mostly been a success. It's definitely the Aurora I've been seeing, thank god, and now I'm more than halfway to it. The only glaring problem is the nasty headache its given me._

 _"The current seems very weak here, if there even is one, so I'll be taking a little break. I've already helped myself to one of the nutrient blocks, and I'll be drinking some water too. I'll give it another go when my head isn't throbbing. Shepard out."_

Kenna's head was still aching slightly when she was violently thrown from her spot on the bench/storage compartment. Bewildered, she attempts to rise but freezes at the sound of a bone chilling roar. The lifepod alarms begin to ring and Shepard can see the hull dent inwards as whatever is attacking latches on with a spectacular strength. She clings to the ladder tightly as the pod is thrashed about, the monstrous roar booming all the while.

There's a loud crunching sound that grates against her eardrums, and she stares horrified as a pair of jaws with rows of many sharp teeth bites off a corner of the pod.

Water comes rushing in as the pod is thrown again, and with the added slipperiness she loses hold and is flung out through the hole, its jagged edge cutting across her hands as she desperately tries to grab on to something.

It's then that she gets a good look at the beast. Its shark-like body was long and white, streaked with blood red fins. At its head were four giant mandibles with which it was holding its current prey, her pod.

 _Her pod, which contains the only supplies she has!_

At that sudden realization, she kicked herself into gear and fell back on her training. Her body lit up the water with a purplish hue as she lashed out at the sea monster. It balked as her warp connected, roaring out in pain as the chaotic ball of gravitational energy tore at it's side. Reaching out with her power again, she pulled on one of its mandibles in the opposite direction, pulling it away from her pod.

When the thing finally caught sight of her glowing form it rushed forward with a speed Shepard hadn't expected, putting her on the defensive as she threw up a hasty barrier to its claw tipped mandibles. Her lungs began to burn with a need for oxygen but she kept up the barrier as the monster squeezed at it, determined to not budge an inch. Just as she felt herself begin to waver, the beast gave it up and released her, judging that she more trouble than she was worth.

Her lungs were practically on fire now as she raced to the surface and took several gasping breaths of air in the afternoon light. She took a moment to let the excitement/terror of the past few moments ease some, before taking a deep breath and diving again. She had to get those supplies before they were too deep.


	5. Would you like some assistance?

Shepard is tired, sore, and aching all over after nearly an hour of swimming. She's not unfit, but she definitely is not prepared for this olympian level of swimming, and she's been forced to take several breaks where she simply floats in place to catch her breath. But even as her body rests her mind refuses to completely relax. She's never been afraid of deep water before, but after her encounter with an honest to god sea monster she can't shake the worry that some predator is lurking just beneath her, waiting to take hold and drag her to the inky depths below.

It's a great relief then, that when the blue sky is giving way to the oranges and reds of sunset she finally reaches her destination.

Shepard struggles a bit to haul herself out of the water, but she does manage it in spite of her protesting arms. She lays there, eyes closed and breathing heavily, just glad to be safe and out of the water. The night arrives not but an hour later, with stars coming out to shine bright in the sky, but it goes unseen by human eyes. Shepard has already fallen asleep.

 ** _"Hello, I am Virtual Intelligence for Terran Assistance, or VITA, at your disposal for 90 percent of your modern needs. Warning: The Aurora has suffered orbital hull failure. Cause: Unknown. Continued spaceflight with this craft is inadvisable, please seek the nearest non-hostile accident assistance services."_**

Shepard chuckled a little before sighing in relief; it had proved exceptionally challenging to find an operational computer terminal. She had combed the ship (well the decks she could access anyway), and finally had found one here in the vehicle bay Alterra had stashed their equipment in. She had yet to find a way to the cargo bay, and the bay the 'Corp had set up shop in the missing bow section.

 ** _"Omni-tool detected, comparing identification signature...System match:_**

 ** _Shepard, Kenna_** _**J;**_

 ** _Aerospace Corp;_**

 ** _Service no.5923-AC-2826;_**

 ** _Female;_**

 ** _AB positive;_**

 ** _Class 4 Biotic._**

 ** _Vital lifesigns: normal._**

 ** _"No higher officers aboard ship detected. Ensign Shepard is now in command."_**

"That answers one question, I guess." Kenna muttered, running a hand back through her hair, which was starting to frizz from the constant humidity of the planet. "Vita, how did the ship go down?"

 ** _"I'm sorry, I do not have access to this craft's Voyage Data Recorder from your current terminal. If you would like to access the VDR, please use one of the bridge terminals."_**

"Of course." she huffed. Really, was it so hard to have that information available everywhere? "Okay Vita, perform role call. I need to know where everyone is." It was a question that had to be answered, loathed as she was to ask it. The ongoing silence from the short-range communicator on her 'tool wasn't a good sign, but the fact she hadn't seen any bodies had helped keep the thought of being alone at bay.

 ** _"Twenty nine of thirty omni-tools aboard this craft reporting user death, one omni-tool reporting normal lifesigns from the aft vehicle bay,"_** Shepard shut her eyes and heaved a shaky breath, doing her best to clamp down on the sob she felt constricting her throat at the pronouncement. And then, a ray of hope. ** _"Twelve omni-tools from the crew registry not detected aboard ship."_**

"Where are they?! Did they make it to the lifepods?" she demanded, just short of shouting.

 ** _"Unknown. The sensors I can access from this terminal are insufficient to search beyond this craft. Please use the long range sensors and communication suite to locate the missing crewmen."_**

"And the sensor suite is where?"

 ** _"The bridge."_** Shepard groans.

"Alright, where is the bridge, Vita?"


	6. Ship's log

**Post-crash log 6, Day 4:**

"This is Ensign Kenna Shepard. As of 6.24.2177, twenty-two hundred hours Sol Coordinated Time, twenty-nine men and women of the TCS Aurora have been confirmed dead. I have copied their names, location, and time of death to my omni-tool for future recovery.

"Currently, twelve more are unaccounted for. There's a good chance that they made it to the lifepods, and they ought to have at least made it to the surface. I'm going to track them down and bring them home. Shepard out."

Zap*

"Ow!"

 ** _"Warning, some wire conduits in the maintenance access tunnels may be damaged. Please exercise caution around live wires."_**

"Thanks for the heads up, Vita." grumbled Kenna.

She had been mildly surprised that the protruding structure atop the Aurora was in fact the bridge. She had thought it was merely an executive viewing gallery some Alterra exec had demanded be installed. Guys at the top always liked looking down upon everything like they were some monarch, never mind the fact that generally they were about forty times more wealthy than any of the surviving monarchies back on earth. But there being a bridge up there wasn't so bad until she asked for the directions to the secondary, internal bridge. It was a standard design principle for large ships. Redundancy went hand in hand with safety.

Vita had politely informed her that it was no longer capable of functioning as such, but it had been converted into a holo-cinema with over two hundred vids to choose from. For the crew's viewing pleasure, of course.

She had replied by biotically ripping to shreds a handful of the crates with Alterra's logo.

Of course that hadn't been the end of frustrations either. Most of the mag-lifts were inoperable, leaving her with the unenviable task of using the maze of maintenance ways to winde her way up the to the top, as she was now.

 ** _"You have reached Deck 22. You now are 90 vertical meters from your destination."_**

And to think, some people thought climbing walls were no longer essential for modern military training.

The climb to the Bridge was mostly uneventful. There were a few electrical fires she had to put out to continue, for which there were way too few fire extinguishers for. But she managed, and she finally crawled up onto the bridge.

It was the standard Terran layout, if slightly larger than she was used to seeing. Admittedly though, she hadn't been in the bridge of a ship larger than a cruiser. Helm was at the fore, the sensors and coms stations to the right. On the left, where on a warship various weapon stations would be, was the Aurora's asteroidial mining controls. The captain's spot was centrally located, slightly elevated from the rest, and occupied by the body of the ship captain. Hollister, if she remembered his name right. By the looks of it, his final moments had been quick: for a ship this big, going at orbital velocities, coming to a sudden stop was enough to overcome just about any civilian grade inertial dampeners.

She walked over towards one of the sensor terminals and waved her hand to bring up the holo-haptic display. The Aurora's sensor array was impressive even when damaged, but irritatingly, highly specialized towards detecting valuable elements and compounds, and calculating their relative abundance. Still, she was able to get the coordinates of the lifepods, and downloaded it along with what little geographic data had been gathered before the ship went down. She would just have to get closer to locate any omni-tools with her own.

"Alright, Vita, play the Recorder."

 ** _"Accessing Voyage Data Recorder. Caution: both Commonwealth and Citadel law prohibit the tampering of VDRs and similar devices. Any attempts to do so will be investigated, and may be punished with a fine and time in prison._**

 ** _VITA: "...Initial colonization assessment: Favorable."_**

 ** _Captain Hollister: "Well ain't she a beauty?"_**

 ** _2nd Officer Keen: "Yes, sir"_**

 ** _Hollister: "Oh come off it, Jonathan! Take a moment and appreciate being an explorer at least once. Think about it, just a few decades ago humanity was putzing around Sol, colonizing every rock we could stick a flag in, and now see what we're doing!"_**

 ** _Keen: "Searching the boonies for special space rocks? Yes, very inspiring."_**

 ** _Hollister: *sigh* "One of these days, Keen, you're going to have to pull that stick out of your ass. Helm, take us in over Phaedra b. Sensors, I want the scanners going as soon as we're there."_**

 ** _Helmsman Rhys: "Aye, sir, positioning us for low orbit."_**

 ** _Sensor Chief Pereira: "On it, captain."_**

 ** _VITA: "Commencing orbital insertion of Phaedra b, initiating surface scan procedures. Warning! Massive power surge detected from anomalous contact."_**

 ** _Pereira: "The hell?!"_**

 ** _VITA: "Warning! Energy discharge detected."_**

 ** _*Boom!*_**

 ** _VITA: "Warning! Hull breach detected, drive core is offline."_**

 ** _Rhys: "Damn it!"_**

 ** _Hollister: "Transfer helm controls to me! VITA, evacuate the ship!"_**

 ** _VITA: "Emergency parameters engaged. All personnel, abandon ship! Catastrophic hull breach imminent!"_**

 ** _Hollister: "That goes for the rest of you, too."_**

 ** _Keen: "but sir-!"_**

 ** _Hollister: "I'll be out right behind you, just go!"_**

 ** _VITA: "Confirming launch of multiple lifepods."_**

 ** _Hollister: "Keen! This is Aurora, come in!_**

 ** _Keen: "This is Keen, lifepod detached okay, planetfall in 30 seconds!"_**

 ** _Hollister: "VITA has identified a landmass at the attached coordinates! I want you to regroup the crew there!"_**

 ** _Keen: "Understood, but-"_**

 ** _Hollister: "They're your responsibility now, don't let them down!"_**

 ** _Keen: "Captain, you need to evacuate!"_**

 ** _VITA: "Warning! Massive power surge detected from anomalous contact."_**

 ** _Hollister: "Negative, you'll need the ship in as big of a piece as I can manage if you're going to contact help on the long-range. I'm attempting a controlled descent."_**

 ** _VITA: "Warning! Energy discharge detected._**

 ** _*boom!*_**

 ** _VITA: "Warning! The Aurora has sustained critical hull failure in her bow sections."_**

"That's enough, Vita." Shepard took a moment to collect herself again."What can you tell me about the contact that brought us down?"

 ** _"Scans indicated an energy build up on the order of 200 megatons of TNT. Estimated speed from discharge to contact indicates a non-laser form of beamed energy weapon, likely a particle beam."_**

Shepard grimaced at that. That was one hell of a gun, and they didn't seem very friendly. And any rescue team would likely end up stuck right with her. "Do you know where that weapon is?"

 ** _"Negative, the data collected was insufficient to locate the weapon with any large degree of accuracy."_**

"Damn." she murmured, "Okay, Vita, I need you to alter the distress call. Tell any responders to stay out past the moon, we can't have others getting hit too." It might not stop them from being targeted, but at that range they ought to be able to evade anything coming at them, and if it came down to it they could take potshots of their own at that gun.

Not that the Citadel would take kindly to the orbital bombardment of a garden world, but they couldn't really tell the Commonwealth what they can and cannot do when somebody is shooting their ships.

"Can you give me those island coordinates the captain mentioned?"

 ** _"Downloading to your omni-tool now, Ensign"_**

"Thanks." she murmured while distractedly compiling all the data into a rough map. The pods had been scattered in a rough line going south about a hundred kilometres long that matched the Aurora's descent path, while the Island was to her south west. That made her plans easy enough; she could follow the trail of lifepods before swinging over to the island to wait for rescue.

Just how would she get there though


	7. Crabs

The _Aurora_ was the crowning jewel of Alterra Prospecting and Mining Inc., as the Chief Technical Officer had told Kenna a week ago over a shared pot of coffee. And it wasn't just because of her size. In fact their rival, some Mongolian firm, had a few ships roughly the same size. But what the _Aurora_ could do that others could not was process a high volumes of materials quickly and accurately in situ. As a consequence, they had advanced Assemblers that allowed them to build any needed equipment from raw materials. Well, any equipment they had the IP rights to, as she found out. That was a problem as the vast majority of the blueprints the machine could make was useless to her. She didn't have much use for unmanned mining drones, and she wasn't up to playing chicken with a death ray in a dinky little shuttle either, so that left the submersibles as the only viable option.

Deciding on the one that seemed most suitable, she selected it on the console and stepped back to let the assembly drones whiz about directing molten plasteel and glass. The Cyclops would be large enough for her and any survivors she picked up, and a radio Vita had assured her would relay any offworld messages the Aurora received in addition to the other lifepods. The sub would also have a fabricator, but it'd go through power like a krogan in a chinese buffet.

Speaking of food…

Shepard clamberedout of the maintenance shaft at Deck 14 and took a few minutes break from the climb to look around. The directional signs confirmed to her that this was the deck with the cafeteria. Break rooms with small vendingmachines were littered around the ship, but she really couldn't survive on candy bars. Her metabolism just wouldn't allow it and she really wanted proper food. The more carbs the better, considering how she was pushing herself physically and biotically the other day.

She advanced carefully through the corridor. There really was no telling which floors were stable after the crash, and of course there were several small fires on board that probably wouldn't go out for another few days. Shepard would put them out if they posed a threat or got in the way, but she couldn't play fireman for the whole kilometer long ship. She got lucky though, this deck seemed in good shape.

The doors to the cafeteria slid open at her touch to reveal an unwelcome sight. Alien crab-things were crawling all over the place, scuttling under the tables and crawling over the serving counter into the kitchen. One of them paused to look at her with its big, singular, blue eye and chittered. Then another joined it in staring and chattering, and another until there was a loud chorus of clicks. It was when they began to rush at her that she broke from her stunned silence and slammed the door shut.

"Vita, what the hell were those things?" Kenna demanded.

 ** _"Scans indicate them to be four legged arthropods. They appear to be omnivorous scavengers. Would you like to name them, Ensign?"_**

"Would I want to- what?" she asked, bewildered.

 ** _"Terran common law grants the right of Prima Nomina to all explorers and discoverers. Would you still like to name the arthropods, ma'am?"_**

"...Sure, why not?" she responded, taking a moment to process all of that. "ugh...Wreck Crawlers?" she suggested.

 ** _"Name confirmed. Species: "Wreck Crawlers" has been catalogued."_**

"Any other surprise wildlife encounters I should be made aware of?"

 ** _"Negative, Ensign."_**

She humphed crossed her arms in frustration. "This is just great. What am I supposed to do for food now?"

 ** _"Harvesting alien flora and fauna is a proven survival strategy. When Craig McGill crash landed on 999 Boreas d, he survived for 7 months on a healthy diet of live tree-roaches and raw stankroot."_**

"That's...not a bad idea, actually." Kenna thought, cocking her head at the ceiling. Given that the 'crawlers could eat the Aurora's supplies, that meant they were levo-protein based. Not that she was going back in there to have crawler legs for dinner, but if an omnivore was levo then that meant the rest of the planet probably was too. "Best get fishing, I suppose."


End file.
